Apple To Withdraw From iAd Platform, Plans To Automate It

Apple’s iAd program has never contributed majorly to its sales revenue, and this has forced the company to finally step back from the platform. BuzzFeed, citing an inside source, informed readers that the company will soon stop making efforts at advertising sales and will end its direct involvement with iAd.

iAd – Apple fails despite repeated efforts

Apple has decided to dismantle its iAd sales team and hand over the platform to publishers, thus enabling them to directly create and sell ads. All the revenue generated from it will go to publishers. Apple could not establish iAd, which debuted in 2010, as a successful advertising platform, and the main reason is its pricing.

The minimum buy-in fee of iAd at the time of its launch was $500,000, and even price cuts by the iPhone maker could not win over advertisers. Over the years, the iPhone firm made several improvements to it and also tried reviving the platform when it launched iTunes radio. Despite all these efforts, it never proved a successful venture for the company.

The change should have minimal impact on end users. The platform is not going anywhere; only Apple’s direct involvement in the creating and selling of iAd units is ending.

Good for publishers

It seems as if the advertising industry sources who are aware of Apple’s new plan for the program are intrigued by it. One of BuzzFeed’s sources reportedly thinks it will be really great forpublishers.

“It gives them direct dialogue with their customers as opposed to forcing them to go through an Apple middleman. Access will be more plentiful and easier to manage – theoretically,” one of the sources told the website.

In September, Apple initiated the process of automating iAd with an iAd Workbench update, which added some new tools to help publishers sell ads in Apple News on their own. Presently, Apple News publishers are able to sell their own ads or let iAd sell on their behalf, while developers are entirely reliant on iAd. The iPhone firm plans to expand its Apple News model to the App Store and other platforms, thus making it possible for publishers to sell directly.

On Wednesday, Apple shares closed down 2.57% at $97.39. Year to date, the stock is down by over 7%, while in the last month, it is down by almost 14%.